John Ratcliffe was confirmed to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Thursday, making him the second of President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks to secure their position. 

By a vote of 74-25, Ratcliffe was confirmed. 

The Senate’s full approval of Ratcliffe came after a 14-3 vote by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday evening, which advanced Ratcliffe’s nomination to the Senate floor Thursday. 

Ratcliffe previously served as Trump’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI) from May 2020 until January 2021, during the president’s first term in office. At the time, Ratcliffe faced scrutiny over whether he was adequately qualified for the role and whether his loyalty to Trump might cloud his judgment. Ratcliffe’s eventual nomination was approved along party lines.   

Prior to Ratcliffe’s role as DNI, he was a member of the House of Representatives since 2015, serving Texas’s 4th Congressional District. During Ratcliffe’s tenure in Congress, he served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 2019 until his move to DNI the following year.

Ratcliffe’s confirmation this time around has garnered support from some Democrats, including from the top Democrat on the Senate’s intel committee, Rep. Mark Warner of Virginia, who voted in favor of Ratcliffe’s confirmation.

During Ratcliffe’s first confirmation hearing last week, when lawmakers probed him over how he would handle the role as CIA director if confirmed, Ratcliffe said he would eliminate politicization and ‘wokeness’ in the agency’s workforce. Ratcliffe added that he plans on focusing on the agency’s approach to technology, saying that he thinks it has struggled to keep pace with the tech evolution occurring in the private sector.

Ratcliffe will also take a hawkish stance towards China, according to people close to Ratcliffe, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Ratcliffe’s confirmation makes him the second of Trump’s nominees to garner congressional approval, after Marco Rubio. The Republican-controlled Senate said it plans to work overtime to get the rest of Trump’s nominees approved quickly, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune insisting in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Tuesday evening, that they would work ‘nights, weekends, recesses’ until the process is complete.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said on Thursday she can’t support Pete Hegseth to be President Donald Trump’s secretary of Defense. 

‘Given the global security environment we’re operating in, it is critical that we confirm a Secretary of Defense, however, I regret that I am unable to support Mr. Hegseth,’ she concluded in a lengthy statement posted to X. 

In her reasoning, Murkowski cited infidelity, ‘allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking’ and Hegseth’s previous comments on women serving in the military. 

The behaviors that he has admitted to alone, she said, show ‘a lack of judgment that is unbecoming of someone who would lead our armed forces.’

While Hegseth has admitted to past infidelity, he has denied claims of excessive drinking and sexual assault. 

The Alaska Republican noted that she met with Hegseth ‘and carefully reviewed his writings, various reports, and other pertinent materials.’ 

Further, Murkowski said she ‘closely followed his hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee and gathered substantial feedback from organizations, veterans, and Alaskans.’

However, ‘After thorough evaluation, I must conclude that I cannot in good conscience support his nomination for Secretary of Defense,’ she said. 

Other GOP senators who have yet to take a public position on Hegseth include Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and former GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Collins told reporters on Thursday, ‘I’ll be releasing a statement shortly.’ 

Hegseth will need a simple majority of the Senate to vote in his favor in order to be confirmed. With the Republicans’ 53-seat majority, he can only afford to lose a handful of the conference. If there is a tie, newly sworn in Vice President JD Vance will be needed to cast the tie-breaking vote. 

The move to oppose Hegseth’s confirmation was not unexpected from Murkowski, who has earned a reputation for occasionally bucking her party. 

Fox News was recently told it was possible Hegseth’s confirmation would need Vance’s tie-breaking vote.In particular, Fox News was told to watch McConnell, Collins and Murkowski on the pivotal confirmation vote. 

If McConnell and Collins join Murkowski in voting nay, Vance will need to come to the Capitol to break the tie and confirm Hegseth as Defense Secretary.

 No Vice President had ever broken a tie to confirm a cabinet Secretary until former Vice President Pence did so to confirm Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary on February 7, 2017. Pence also broke ties to confirm former Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) as ambassador for religious freedom in 2018. He also broke a tie to confirm current Budget Director nominee Russ Vought as Deputy Budget Director in 2018.

Over the last few days, Hegseth’s nomination has faced new pressure with the revelation of an affidavit from his former sister-in-law that alleged he made his ex-wife Samantha Hegseth fear for her safety. Additionally, a source familiar told Fox News that Samantha had provided a new statement to the FBI, which alleged ‘Pete Hegseth has had and continues to have a problem with alcohol abuse.’

Hegseth maintained his denial of any allegations of alcohol, physical or sexual abuse. 

President Donald Trump is expected to pardon pro-life activists convicted under the FACE Act during President Joe Biden’s administration in the coming days.

The pardons, first reported by The Daily Wire, would apply to activists convicted of protesting near abortion clinics during various demonstrations. The details and scope of the pardons have yet to be revealed.

Thomas Ciesielka, a spokesman for the pro-life law firm the Thomas Moore Society, confirmed plans for the pardon to Fox News Digital.

News of the plan comes just one day before the March for Life, an annual pro-life march that takes place in Washington, D.C.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., had called on Trump to pardon activists convicted under the FACE Act since the president was sworn into office.

‘No administration in history has targeted Christians like the Biden Admin. We saw one persecution after another, from shutting down churches during COVID to raiding pro-lifers homes at the crack of dawn. EVERY pro-life prisoner Biden wrongly imprisoned should be pardoned,’ Hawley wrote on X.

Hawley said he spoke with Trump about a potential pardon plan on Thursday morning, saying they had a ‘great conversation.’

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has also introduced legislation that would dismantle the FACE Act. Many lawmakers have argued that Democratic administrations have weaponized it against pro-life groups and Christians.

‘97% of FACE Act prosecutions between the years of 1994-2024 were initiated against pro-life Americans; it is laughable to argue that the law hasn’t been weaponized. Let’s put H.R. 589 on the President’s desk and end this once and for all,’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said in a statement reacting to the pardon news.

Trump also issued a blanket pardon for nearly all January 6 prisoners shortly after he took the oath of office.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended Elon Musk after media outlets described a gesture that the Tesla CEO made at President Donald Trump’s inauguration rally on Monday as a Nazi salute.

Netanyahu took to X on Thursday to post that Musk is ‘being falsely smeared.’

‘Elon is a great friend of Israel,’ the prime minister said. ‘He visited Israel after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. He has since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state.’ 

Netanyahu went on to thank Musk for his support.

Musk made the gesture in question while speaking to a crowd of MAGA faithful at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

‘This is what victory feels like! And this was no ordinary victory, this was a fork in the road for human civilization… I just want to say thank you for making it happen, thank you. From my heart to yours,’ an ebullient Musk said as he placed his hand over his own heart and reached out to the crowd.

PBS News Hour fired out a post on X that said the Tesla CEO ‘gave what appeared to be a fascist salute,’ while the Jerusalem post wrote, ‘US billionaire Elon Musk appeared to make a Heil Hitler salute at the Washington DC Trump parade on Monday, following Trump’s inauguration.’

CNN host Erin Burnett played the clip of the gesture and called it an ‘odd salute.’

Musk addressed the controversy Wednesday on X, which he owns, writing, ‘The radical leftists are really upset that they had to take time out of their busy day praising Hamas to call me a Nazi.’

On Thursday, Musk poked fun at the reports in another post on X.

‘Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people will Goebbels anything down! Stop Gőring your enemies! His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler! Bet you did nazi that coming,’ Musk wrote, adding a crying laughing emoji.

The Anti-Defamation League also defended Musk in a statement saying that the tech billionaire had made an ‘awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute.’

‘In this moment, all sides should give each one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt and take a breath,’ the statement said. 

Fox News Digital’s David Spector contributed to this report.

Leading the House Republican communications policy under a president like President Donald Trump, who is known to frequently air his thoughts on the public stage, is likely not an easy task.

However, Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., the new House GOP Conference chair, argues that the outspoken commander in chief makes her job easier – in part, because of his simple but ubiquitous tagline.

‘If you take a look at the last election cycle, Republicans had the winning message, and it was simple, it was consistent, and it was easily repeatable, right?’ McClain said. ‘So, ‘Make America Great.’ Make America ‘blank’ again. Make America strong again. Make America energy independent. It was simple and it was concise. And the message worked so well that it didn’t matter if you were in a [moderate or heavily Republican] district.’

‘Everyone’s not trying to reinvent the wheel. They have a playbook that they can all sing from, so to speak.’

McClain, now the No. 4 House GOP leader, has been in senior leadership for just over three weeks, but she has largely shunned the solo stage that comes with the role in favor of shining that spotlight on lesser-known members of the GOP.

She has co-authored op-eds with rank-and-file lawmakers and promoted interview opportunities on issues that affect their home states. McClain told Fox News Digital that she saw her job as elevating the existing qualities that helped members of the conference win their elections.

‘People want to help. They want to be engaged. They want to feel part of something. And I think my job as conference chair, I can help give them a platform,’ she said. 

Like Trump, she made her living in business before coming into politics. Before being elected to Congress in the 2020 races, McClain ran a 700-person financial planning company in her home state of Michigan.

When asked why she decided to run, McClain joked, ‘I blame it on my daughter.’

‘So we have Sunday dinner, and that’s kind of my time to hold court,’ she recalled. ‘I was on my soapbox about something. And my daughter Ryan looked at me… ’You can either be part of the problem or part of the solution.’ She was being sassy. ‘Why don’t you run for Congress and do something about it?’ So that kind of planted the seed.’ 

However, since being elected, McClain said she has carried at least one lesson over from the business world – relationships.

‘We are stronger together as a team. And the more people you have on the team, the better you are,’ she said.

Just this week, she and a team of House GOP leaders sat down with Trump to discuss his agenda.

Those relationships extend past her fellow lawmakers, however. 

Her predecessor, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. – whom McClain heaped praise on during her interview – was known to operate with a tight circle and largely kept the media at arm’s length.

However, McClain is known for her open demeanor with journalists, both through informal chats on Capitol Hill and occasionally sparring with members of the media on more difficult issues.

‘You want to tell a story, I also want to tell a story. So if we work together, as long as we’re fair or respectful to each other, I think we can work together to help shape that narrative on what the story is we’re trying to tell,’ McClain said. ‘Because at the end of the day, if I don’t share my narrative with you on what’s the story we’re trying to tell, you’re going to come up with a story on your own. So why wouldn’t we work together to share that story? It just makes sense.’